Photo: Shine 2010

One of the things you’ll notice quite quickly about South Africa is the extraordinary initiative we South Africans have. Whether it’s a young schoolkid from the township finding a way to sell sweets after school so that he can save up for a soccer ball, or a mother making her famous chocolate cake for a home industry shop, or a successful businessman closing another international deal, South Africans are famously driven to see opportunities where others might not.

It’s this spirit of initiative (which, in a way, is a spirit of hope) that lines our city streets with makeshift hairdressing salons, made out of painted sheets. It’s this spirit of initiative that has our beggars offering to sell jokes for some small change. It’s this spirit of initiative that has gripped so many hundreds of us in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup, creating ideas and jobs and products where before there were none. And, most importantly I think, it’s this spirit of initiative that allowed us to come out of the dark days of separation and strive towards a cohesive, bright, colourful future.

We took the initiative… And we haven’t stopped since.